Network Topography Help

MrMaster

Golden Member
Nov 16, 2001
1,235
2
76
www.pc-prime.com
I have what I believe is just a horrible looking network setup. Bottom line is I need to access a shared drive on a windows machine which is behind multiple routers.

I've attached a pic that hopefully shows the setup. I have my port forwards setup through all three routers with my only problem is getting a vpn to work correctly.

The reason for the last router (peplink router 3) in front of the windows 10 pro machine is due to a very weak connection between router 2 and router 3. You have to run this particular program right on the server and so it takes a lot of bandwidth. Like i already mentioned the connection is too weak between router 2 and 3 to have the windows 10 pro machine sit directly behind router 2.

The windows 1, windows 2, and windows 3 machines are hardwired to router 3 so that they can have a fast connection to the windows 10 pro machine.

I'd like to be able to map the network drive on the windows 10 pro machine so that it can be accessible by those on router 2. Ideally remotely as well but that definitely will be a vpn situation. Also getting rid of that 3rd router would be nice but I'm not convinced I can get the connection between router 2 and 3 strong enough.

Can anyone be kind (or mean) in suggesting a solution? I am sure I have this all setup wrong.
Link to my map:
Cr35-_172.16.16.1.png
 

XavierMace

Diamond Member
Apr 20, 2013
4,307
450
126
Elaborate on what you mean by the connection is too weak to have the "server" sit right behind router 2? Is it connected by WiFi? For that matter what's the purpose or router 2? Unless you're leaving out some geographic details, this setup looks like it would be far better served by a single router and some WAP's.
 

MrMaster

Golden Member
Nov 16, 2001
1,235
2
76
www.pc-prime.com
The connection between router 2 and router 3 consists of a few 2.4ghz models to a powerline over ethernet connection then onto a hardwired connection from that powerline device into the office. That's fine for internet but not for running this particular program.

It's a beautiful place but as far as wifi is concerned the terrain is a nightmare. That is why I have to have this convoluted connection to the office in the first place.

By having the windows computers and the windows 10 pro sitting behind it's own router I don't have to worry about the bottleneck between router 2 and router 3.
 

mxnerd

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2007
6,799
1,100
126
Why router 3 at all? Why not just use a switch if it's uplinked using powerline ethernet?

You keep mentioning the software on Windows 10 Pro, I guess it's a database program? If all those 3 Windows machines do is querying data from the database, the traffic will be just between these 4 machines, all you need is a switch, or uplink router to router 2 using one of its LAN ports.

And why CR35? Is it a WiFi router or what? Why does it have be in router mode? Why not turn it into an access point?

You better list all 3 routers' models and exactly what mode they are on and how they are connected.
 
Last edited:

MrMaster

Golden Member
Nov 16, 2001
1,235
2
76
www.pc-prime.com
Sorry for not being clearer. These are not consumer routers. This network layout is for a bunch of villas. A very hilly, rocky spread-out location with hurricane proof villas on it (10 inch cement walls) that has zero network cabling in them and electrical wiring down here tends to rust very quickly from the elements.

I had an 8 port gigabit switch in the office already and that didn't help at all.

Router 1 is a Cyberoam CR25 that is the router between the ISP and my personal network.

Router 2 is a Cyberoam CR35 (connected via rockets 10 miles away) and its job is to route the traffic for the villas. The CR35 is connected on the very same LAN Port B as my personal network instead of a Port C. I was hoping to make it easier to talk between the two networks and at some point in the future The CR35 will connect directly to the ISP. This router averages 75 devices connected to it at one time and that number will triple in the next 2 years with the numerous additions being built.

Router 3 is just a Peplink20 that I had lying around.

All 3 are in router mode. The windows 10 pro copy is running a program called Roommaster that is used to manage villas, POS for a restaurant, boat rentals..etc. The program is accessed one of two ways. RDP or a link to an exe file on a mapped drive. Exe file appears to run some sort of activex wrapper.
 
Last edited:

mxnerd

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2007
6,799
1,100
126
31ZhtxM3kSL.jpg


Since There are only 4 ports on Peplink 20 and all of them occupied, machines on router2 can only use VPN to access router3 (or use SMB port forwarding)

According to Peplink 20 manual, it only supports Cisco & Juniper site-to-site VPN, so you probably have to setup OpenVPN server on Win10 Pro machine & OpenVPN client on employees machines which are on router2.

OpenVPN Server on Windows
http://blog.defron.org/2013/01/openvpn-server-on-windows.html

=======

Checked that RoomMaster software is written in Clarion Topspeed, a database program like Foxpro/Access, with database files in .TPS extension. You have done it correctly by keep those 3 machines hardwired to the Win 10 Pro, since if you put them on WiFi and if a glitch happened, the database will be corrupted.

RoomMaster also have Remote Access solutions, http://www.innquest.com/remote/index.php , have you considered them?

=======

If Router2 to Router3 speed is really slow, I hope you are not going to let employees run that database exe file across the router, that wouldn't be a good idea.

Employees's access to Excel/Word files on mapped drive probably would not cause too much trouble.

=======
Not familiar with double or triple NAT.

Open source SoftEther https://www.softether.org with its VPN Azure Cloud http://www.vpnazure.net/en/ promised easy VPN using NAT traversals, you might be interested. It's not popular, however, probably users think it's risky.
 
Last edited:

MrMaster

Golden Member
Nov 16, 2001
1,235
2
76
www.pc-prime.com
Yes, they are using that web app.

I did setup openvpn access server on a computer sitting on the peplink but when trying to access the client or admin web page from outside the network the logo just spins. If vpn is the way to go I will just have to keep troubleshooting that.

Setting up a full windows terminal server with all the licensing and the shortened equipment lifespan just seems to be such expensive overkill just to run several RDS at the same time.

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it.